Blooming in Frome, a garden diary

Retrospective: Doing the plan, Jan 17

‘Doing the Plan’ is my project to to get out of the office and into the garden. I hope to create a profitable market garden, and spend more time with seeds than spreadsheets.

Last year, I made about three zillion spreadsheets in the office. This year, I have just one, a spreadsheet schedule, (shed-ule?) for ‘The Plan,’to boss myself about and stay on track.

Anyway, here is the plan, with a status update, as of 26 Jan.

The ‘RAG’ (Red, Amber, Green) report looks okay overall.

Status green: We have moved house, I’ve planted out the bare roses and potted up the plants we transported from London. If I were at a project retrospective meeting in the office I’d be serving cake to celebrate steady progress. (It would be a workaday cake, like banana bread, not anything too fancy.)

Status red: There are still seeds to sow, but there are still a few days left in Jan to do so.

Status amber: I should blog more – partly as a way to record progress, partly to connect with other gardeners, and maybe as a way to reach potential customers in future…

Retrospectively, lessons learned include ‘moving house is a pain the ass and takes ages’ and ‘you can’t plant bulbs into frozen soil.’ Also, friends say they like video, even when all I’ve posted is short clips of frozen earth and soggy mud. Next month, I’ll try to video something other than soil.

So, is Doing The Plan really doable? Well, it’s early days yet, but so far, so-so!

3 thoughts on “Retrospective: Doing the plan, Jan 17”

Agile or waterfall gardening? I detect a hybrid approach with some agile features, retros for example, plus traditional project status reporting. I like a good spreadsheet, regardless. Commendably organised. Just been looking through vast qty of veg seeds in my stash and thinking I need a planting plan. Or medical help! Good luck with February…

I did indeed, and it’s warmed up nicely now. I have a tonne of sowing to do at the weekend. I should actually refine my backlog a little, I suspect there are some “nice to have” and even some plain dumb items currently (celeriac, for example, yuck) which will consume valuable (plant) development resources if I am not brutal. Ok ok enough of that analogy…